Carol Dweck Brainology

Through decades of research, studies have confirmed that the mindset can have a powerful effect on individual outcome whether in school or at the workplace. In her, article “Brainology”, Carol Dweck valid arguments as to why the possession of a fixed mindset and constant praising are recipes for a disastrous life. Looking back at my education experience, I realize that most of the concepts discussed by the author applied in my life in one way or the other. While approaching education with a growth mindset enables one to put dedication and effort leading to success, approaching education with a fixed mindset limits one capability and consequently leads to lack of effort.

I consider my educational experience as perhaps one of the greatest learning

As Dweck explains, children who are praised for their intelligence does not want to learn hence develop a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is where people believe that their qualities such as talent and intelligence are essentially fixed traits. Such people would only concentrate on documenting their intelligence instead of looking for ways for developing the same. In addition, these people make the assumption that their intelligence would make them successful. On the other hand, a growth mindset is where people are aware that it is possible to develop their abilities through hard work and dedication. When I was in Grade 7, a teacher encouraged all students that they all had the ability to perform well in science. After the initial interaction, the teacher was aware that a certain percentage of the class performed way below average; yet, he did not water down their spirit. I remember the way he used to acknowledge even some insignificant improvement made in his tests by comments such as “You are making good progress so far”. Primarily, this teacher focused on the perseverance, strategies, and efforts the students put towards improvement as opposed to praising talent (Dweck 5). The result was that we changed our attitude and focused more on self-improvement.

In sum, a fixed mindset is not healthy in any environment whether at school or at the workplace. Mainly, such an attitude discourages effort and dedication as one believes that their life is predestined. A growth mindset is necessary because one has to constantly improve their chances of being successful by putting in a lot of effort. While praise is important, it should only be directed towards efforts of a child and not their perceived intelligence because of the adverse effects associated with such an